Is YouTube making people stupider?

[Michael]

I am absolutely amazed by the incompetence of so many youtube viewers that message me or comment on my videos. What worries me is that probably most people watching my videos are parrot owners as these videos are very specific toward parrot lovers only.

I am really getting fed up with getting asked questions that I already answered in the "more info" section. I take a lot of time to write a thorough description in more info and even describe how I do some of the things or reference links/articles where people can learn how to do what I demonstrated. And still I get people asking me questions like this:

"what kind of bird is he"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-cdanh5Xzw

I mention that Kili is a Senegal Parrot over ten times on the page and call her a "she" twenty five times. It is just incredible how lazy people are to do a little reading for themselves.

Listen, if someone asks me a good question that was not already answered in more info, I do my best to answer or steer the person in the right direction. However, I am appalled by this spoon fed culture where people expect everything to be handed to them. To me, the videos are merely a visual demonstration of the details I am writing about. I cannot write as vividly about Kili doing the flighted retrieve as showing a video of her doing it. On the other hand, I could not as accurately describe the process of teaching it without writing about all the intricacies that are difficult to notice in the video. The writing and video are meant to supplement each other and in conjunction, provide a more complete understanding of whatever concept I am trying to convey. I am getting sick of people quickly browsing through the videos, not reading the text, and then wasting my time asking simple questions that were already answered.

Is anyone else ticked off about the low level youtube is bringing some people down to?

[MissLady9902]

However, I am appalled by this spoon fed culture where people expect everything to be handed to them.

You should try working at the 911 dispatch center...it's extremely frustrating!
I completely understand your frustration!!! Gah!

[miajag]

News flash: Most people are very, very stupid. I'm pretty sure YouTube doesn't make anyone stupider, but it does give stupid people an outlet to make their voices heard.

Some comedian (George Carlin if I recall correctly) had a line that went something like "Think about how stupid the average person is...then think about the fact that HALF THE POPULATION is even stupider than that."

[MandyG]

I agree with miajag, it's not just youtube, it's just how stupid people are becoming. I think the internet has a lot to do with it. Remember when people actually had to do their own research in a book if they wanted to learn something? You wouldn't ask somebody to read a book for you and regurgatate the information for you, but that's how so many people think it should be these days.

If you have a question and you know somebody can answer it faster than you can research it, say on a post on a forum, then by all means ask. But when the information is right in front of you, at least take a second to attempt to find the answer to your question. If you can't take 30 seconds to try and figure something out for yourself there's no way I'm going to waste my time handing you the information you want.

I work in HR and the amount that people expect to be spoon fed and to have their hand held every step of the way for every little thing is more appalling than just frustrating. I don't understand how most of these people can even dress themselves in the morning.